sheppard girls

Cool

   

Thanks to the fun folks over at Minneapolis Picks, who wrote up sheppard girls in their most recent newsletter.

My stuff is babylicious.  Who knew?!

Crafted Together

 

Craft show season has begun.  The first of my three (or four) of the fall comes this Saturday, October 11, the 11th, right?  Whatever.  Saturday.  In White Bear Lake.  Which for us southern suburb girls is about the other side of the earth.  See that cute poster by Adam Turmann?  My house is on the other side of those big buildings.   Crafted Together is put on by the folks who own Truly which is a super cute shop where you can buy my stuff.  If you attend the show, please stop by and say hi.

Passive aggressive crafting

As I may have mentioned, I am co-chairing the carnival at the girls school this fall.  So far it has been a lot of fun.  Each year we have a school t-shirt that is sold in conjunction with the carnival.  We came up with a tie-dye t-shirt with a peace sign and the name of our town.  It was super cute and a shirt I might actually buy.  I really don't care for screen printed t-shirts or any clothing (other than undies) with characters.  This is really embarrassing when one of my kids says VERY loudly, to a parent whose child is wearing character clothing, "oh, our mom doesn't like character clothes".  Then I have to explain how I would rather pay for quality than licensing, blah, blah, blah. 

Back to the t-shirts.  It was brought to our attention that some people might find the peace sign "controversial".  Um, okay.  We were pretty bummed, and didn't really agree, but whatever, there are bigger things to work on.  So we dropped our super cute idea in exchange for others of the less cool variety.

Over at sheppard girls, however, I am all about the peace sign suddenly.

Available in my Etsy shop and a couple of local shops if you are in the Twin Cities.

Pink and Brown

Last weekend right after we got home from the cabin, I needed to run over to one of my favorite fabric stores, 1 - because they were having a sale, 2- they had ordered additional bolts of my favorite gingham in new colors I hadn't had before, and 3 - because I was out of my beloved Midori seam binding and sometimes they carry it and I needed Caribbean blue for a wholesale order I was working on.  They did not have my seam binding, but they did have all of these lovely fabrics in addition to the gingham. 

Look how pretty they all look together!  The top fabrics are the new Denyse Schmidt in the home dec weight, which is heavier than I usually use, but not as heavy as I thought it would be.  Perfect.  Do you think that the new Anna Maria Horner fabric might be the same weight?  Because I REALLY love some of those prints but thought I probably couldn't use much of it since it was heavier.  But if it isn't that heavy, think of the possibilies.

I also picked a few small bouquets of flowers from our gardens.  We don't get much for summer bouquets, around here so I am going to share them here. Plus they kind of matched the fabric.

Carried away

It started out innocently enough.  We are in the process of redecorating the big one's room.  Apparently pink scallops are so six and half years old.  As I wrote earlier, I bravely removed the between the screen shades and had wooden blind installed.  I finally gave up my quest for a bamboo curtain rod and just purchased one at Bed Bath and Beyond, so we were able to put the new curtains up.  (Beautiful sunny days make for really poor pictures!)

She has an old bulletin board with a really thin layer of cork that she ripped with tape, but it was such a cute frame, I could stand to throw it away, and it occured to me that we could cover it in leftover curtain fabric and make matching pushpins.

In the meatime, a local yoga shop that carries my headbands, wondered if I had any other hair accessories for their clients.  I mentioned the ponytail holders I've made for the girls and their friends, but I wasn't sure they were "zen"enough for the yoga crowd.  But the shop liked them and it is the perfect little task to do while watching TV, or watching the little one play Zoo Tycoon on the computer, or struggling to keep my sanity during the piano practicing of the big on.  I may have gotten a little carried away.

Juice Box

Hey look at me in the Minneapolis St. Paul Magazine parents newsletter.  Hi to everyone who found their way over here from the links!

Happy Mother's Day

My grandma sewed a ton of crazy things.  My bib and potholder patterns came from her, and my mother brought up another one of the pattern earlier this spring, along with a pile of fabric and feed sack cloths.  The old clothespin holder that my mom has been using was getting threadbare and she was hoping I could make a new one from my grandma's pattern.  And by pattern, I mean two piece of paper bag from Ehlert's Clothing and two piece of the Fairmont Sentinel. 

 

Here are the results.  It turned out so sweet, although the feedsack was a little discolored.  I might try to bleach it a little, or add a little big more design.  I think a little embroidered clothes pin would be adorable.

People are awesome

Last weekend I did two more shows.  Each was lots of fun, although I am pretty sure Sunday mid-afternoon I fell asleep for just a tiny little bit at my booth.  On Sunday, there was an adorable woman shopping, who I am pretty sure, if I saw her on regular basis, would become one of my style icons.  (When I was working, there was one volunteer who was so darn stylish, I got inspiration from her every time we ran into each other.)  The woman on Sunday was carrying the Orla Kiely bag that I have been wanting for soooo long.

When I complimented her on her bag, she said it was from Anthropologie, where she works, but yeah, it was sold out.  Monday I got an email from her saying a few more came in the store and if I wanted one, she would put it aside for me.  How nice is that?  She remembered me, tracked me down, and sent me an email, just so I could look cute too.

Craftstravaganza recap

 

Thanks to everyone who came by and who came to buy!  Can you see that there are practically icicles forming on those bibs?  Can you see the dad in the corner huddled over his cup of coffee?  The building at the Fairgrounds isn't heated, and the morning of the show was freezing.  Some of the people near the front door said they had snow on their booths. 

 

Needless to say, I didn't sell out of headbands this year, so I will list a few of my new patterns on Etsy right away.  But I had a lot of fun visiting with shoppers, and the vendors near me were very sweet too.  I am glad to have a few days to get things back to normal around here before next weekend with two sales.  Then show season wraps up for me, just as soccer, tennis and birthday party season begins. 

Crafts

I hope some of you are able to come see me at the Craftstravaganza, this coming Saturday, April 26, or at Crafted Together on May 3, or Spring Fling on May 4.  You get the idea.  Craftstravaganza marks my first full year doing local indie craft fairs.  I spent most of the coming week a year ago, not sleeping, rushing around and crying.  And it ended up being be so fun.   This year promises to be even better, craft show wise - not the crying.

If you stop by my booth, please say hi.  Here's a little incentive:

Last year I reconnected with Gretchen, and I think Becca, is stopping by too, so at least I will have a few friendly faces.  See you then!